CIA's Mission Impossible: Get a New Gym

Agency's Quest Is Marathon Effort; Washington's Workout Culture

By

Siobhan Gorman

Updated July 23, 2012 10:49 p.m. ET

Gen. David Petraeus turned the tide in the Iraq war, flushed the Taliban from southern strongholds in Afghanistan and infiltrated al Qaeda in Yemen. His newest quest, as director of the Central Intelligence Agency, is proving just as daunting: getting more space for treadmills.

Mr. Petraeus, 59 years old, arrived in 2011 to find two basement gyms at the CIA's Langley, Va., headquarters, one with original flooring dating to 1964. A hallway doubles as an indoor running track; it takes 10.25 laps to cover a mile. One gym is...